Cop Hater

Cop Hater
© 1956 Ed McBain
236 pages

The heat is on for Detective Stephen Carella of the 87th precinct and his fellow officers. As a heat wave reduces the city to misery, someone is murdering the precinct's detectives one by one. The killer's victims are spread across the department too much to have been connected to a single case, and one lead after another fizzles to a dead end. Though the unforgiving heat and increasing body count sap their spirits, Carella and the other detectives are determined to find their killer and take him down. When resolution comes, however, it's from an unexpected corner.

Cop Hater is the first in the 87th Precinct series, Ed McBain (Evan Hunter)'s  most famous body of work. The series is so expansive that I have no intention of attempting to read them in order: this merely caught my attention while at the library. McBain/Hunter has a strange style, one that mixes simple grittiness with sometimes flowery prose. He speaks of tenement buildings reaching into the skies like misty fingers while his main characters talk about who's just been 'knocked off'.  The combination works, though, and the novel's use of multiple viewpoints adds to the suspense: in the introduction, McBain mentions that he wanted to use an entire squadroom of detectives for this series, just so he had the option of imperiling or killing characters when useful, and the potency of that decision is made clear here. One detective is killed within moments of our meeting him, while others survive long enough to ensnare the reader's sympathies before they become victims themselves. I roared through this book in a single sitting, though the ending left me wanting -- seeming more the work of coincidence than detective work. Still, there's no denying McBain can write a thriller, and so I've no doubts I'll be reading more. 

Guns

Guns

© 1976 Ed McBain (Evan Hunter)

213 pages

Summer. It's too hot for a job like this. Day like this, anything could go wrong. Doesn't help that this is the thirteenth job Colley has done with this crew.  They don't have any hold-ups about the job though, a raid on a liquor store. Should be an easy mark. So he has to do it. But something'll go wrong. Day like this, it has to. 

"POLICE!" A guy with a shield and a gun, charging toward Colley as he stands watch in the store. He sees the gun and follows his instincts: he shoots. Bang.  The guy drops to the ground. Colley just killed a man. He's a murderer -- a cop-killer, and now  all bets are off.

Guns is the riveting story of Colley Donato, a career hood whose fortunes are reversed when a simple armed robbery goes southward, fast. After the firefight that ensues,  two cops are injured, possibly dead, and Colley's own partner is bleeding out. While he and his third man -- a driver -- get the injured gunman to safety,  their lives are forfeit in the city. Colley has to get out fast, but he's motivated by desperation. Live by the gun, die by the gun -- and he can't seem to shake off the bad luck.  

As Colley runs through the city, he ruminates. The novel is told entirely from his head,  almost in the form of his thoughts -- an approach which has worked well for Michael Shaara and his son.  This tack carries the faint risk of seeming disjointed, but McBain does it grandly. Colley's reflections on the past flow perfectly with his actions in the present, so readers are treated both to the fascinating story of his life as a hood and his thrilling flight from justice -- or revenge, depending on how sympathetic you find Colley and the police.   I stayed up entirely too late trying to finish this novel, and am still suffering from it now,  but it had me. There's a brutal authenticity here, great pacing, and compelling characters. I can't wait to read more of Ed McBain. I understand he has a long-running series of detective stories, so I've a lot to look forward to. 

Related:

• Rumble Fish, S.E. Hinton